I don’t know why that is, but it’s hard to find artistic people who are very disciplined about building creative routines.

I am guilty as charged as well.

I have no idea if I’m typical or not, but I am very feeling-oriented and my productivity goes way up and way down…. if I’m feeling inspired, I get lots done, I feel like being productive.  Other times, I go through periods without getting anything done.

Like posting frequencies on this blog, for example.  I built myself a good habit of Tweeting, and from there built up a good routine of writing blog entries…. and puff!  I hit a wall.  My inspiration runs dry, I have nothing to say.

Now, on one hand, I firmly believe it’s fine to say nothing if you have nothing to say.

On the other hand, I also know that being creative is a habit.  Many successful artists — Diane Warren comes to mind — carve their craft out of regular, highly-routined attempts at being creative.  Inspirations be damned — just like people who jog everyday, you just have a go at it, whether you feel like it or not, and out of the machinegun approach emerge some real jewels.  You get better at doing things by doing them, anyway.  If your batting average is low starting out, just swing many times.   If your average is 10% of what a competent professional should hit, you start out by swinging 10x more to keep up.  In time your craft, your effectiveness will improve, and you won’t have to swing quite so maniacally.  (That’s how true masters make it look easy.  But don’t think for a second that they didn’t pay their dues.)

Building a habit of being creative is actually no different from either creating any new habit or quitting any bad ones.  It’s like building grooves on the ground where your wheels will travel frequently.  It takes some effort to get it going, but once the grooves start taking shape, it gets easier and easier.

Personal Development guru Steve Pavlina has a great article on this that has become a standard among personal development bloggers: 30 Days to Success.  I, for example, had undertaken 30-day challenge to work on songwriting everyday.  And I must say, I was indeed productive!

I also wrote an article on my old personal growth blog that has some relevant points:  The 7 Keys to Breaking Bad Habits

Now, when you’re choosing a new habit to build (or a bad habit to break) it’s a good idea to just focus on one at a time — don’t try to change your life radically, because that’s harder to pull off and failure undermines your self confidence.  If you want to build a habit of being creative, I think a reasonable place to start is to just build a routine/build in a time to have a go at it on a regular basis.  Whether you produce anything worthwhile is beside the point.  The point is to get in the habit of giving it a shot on a regular basis.  After a while, you may surprise yourself at how efficiently you can get creative.  I, as a guitar-based songwriter, have gotten good enough to a point where on most days, I can just mentally turn the switch “on” and write new riffs or guitar parts.

I myself have lots of good habits I hope to build…I will share some of my own 30-day challenges to undertake in the near future.

Anyway, it is very possible for you to change yourself so that you get creative often instead of being stuck in a stop/go routine.  The only thing that’s holding you and me back are ourselves.

So let’s make it a point to build a routine of being creative, shall we?